Search found 49 matches

Thank you very much for your service. I am not in the military but have a TSP from a previous job and also use USAA. It sounds to me like your advisor is giving you good advice. If I were in your situation, I would first want to max out the TSP (at least up to the full portion where they match your ...

Quite heterosexually oriented options. It's a fair comment. Which options would you suggest adding to cover all cases of homosexual couples? Victoria Actually, this would be really insightful as it would tend to negate the role of gender expectations and all of the socialization that goes along wit...

Do any Bogleheads have hands-on experience in comparing the Hyundai Equus vs Lexus LS460? I would be especially interested to hear from those who have tried both, and picked one of these cars in the past couple of years. Thanks.

i viewed it as a buying opportunity. everything was on sale and I bought as much as i could. and, when thinking about what i had that I "lost" in the crash, i thought about having another ~40 years to bounce back...

a few years ago, i stopped new purchases of funds through my discount broker and opened an account directly at vanguard. A direct deposit (this a variable amount from my paycheck, everything after a fixed amount that goes to my checking for a monthly household budget) goes to mutual funds at vanguar...

an alternative would be to get a quote from a company like this http://www.upack.com/ the way it works is they drop off an empty semi trailer in front of location A, and you pack it and they come back the next day. You only pay for the linear feet from the back of the trailer to where your stuff sto...

I am fighting new car fever as well and am thinking about how much it would really save me to delay replacing my car. I came across this paper, Automotive Life Cycle Economics and Replacement Intervals , a few days ago: http://www.sae.org/events/green/reference/2010/Center%20for%20Sustainable%20Auto...

I think you are doing really great. In my opinion, the best thing you can do right now is make financial choices that increase your comfort/ability to take smart, calculated career risks. That might mean building up some more savings so you can move out and take a job in a different geographical loc...

Hi, I am looking for an objective source that has current data on road noise for cars, probably as measured by the decibel level at a certain speed. After much googling, I can find anecdotal information and a few readings for older model years, but nothing comprehensive and current. Does anybody hav...

you pay the same amount of property taxes. although you might lose your mortgage interest deduction, you get a tax benefit of not being taxed on the imputed income you receive from living rent and payment free. here is a short article: http://www.ftpress.com/articles/article.aspx?p=761750&seqNum=7

Hi, XSAS, Sorry about losing your job. For what it's worth, I agree with folks about filing for unemployment, but I don't think you should decide right now about retiring or not retiring. You have about enough, and that alone should make you comfortable. Based on personal experience, I think you sho...

i like the idea of not owing any money to anybody. I pay off my balance the day the billing period closes and if I put business expenses on the card, I put in several payments per month as the reimbursement checks arrive. having a balance due really annoys me...having it be zero is of greater worth ...

welcome to the forum and congratulations on landing a job that you love. that is great. If I were you I would make a budget and focus on paying off that debt as fast as possible. And while you are doing that maybe do some reading and think about your long term goals so you have a saving and investme...

Thanks for all the input, very helpful. I'll dig up information on GMaill and Thunderbird, look at the layouts, and choose one of them. You're still thinking apples and oranges. It's not a matter of choosing one of them. Gmail is the web based Email system. Thunderbird is a pc based client that lin...

some folks might say that by definition, money put in the stock market in the short term is not investing at all, it is speculation. From wikipedia: "Speculation is the practice of engaging in risky financial transactions in an attempt to profit from short or medium term fluctuations in the mar...

Hi, welcome to Bogleheads! I am not an expert in this, but wanted to help try to respond to your post. I think you have a two-part question: 1) would it be better for you to take an FHA or conventional loan? I believe if you qualify for both, it is generally better to take the conventional. 2) do FH...

instead of asking the question this way, how about "what is the annual percentage of household income i/we should be spending on auto transportation" for me it looks like this: Category %[ Gas & Fuel 1.63% Auto Insurance 0.76% Service & Parts 0.49% Car Wash 0.15% Other 0.1% Parking...

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on the progress you have made on tackling debt so far. It must have taken some determination. You may already be familiar with Dave Ramsey. If not, I think he has some great overall advice on how to prioritize things in a household budget, the Cliff's Notes ...

I moved from the east coast to the west coast recently, on my own dime, and had a great experience with a company called ABF http://www.upack.com/. How it works: they drop off an empty semi trailer at your house and you load the trailer at your own pace. You pay only for the space you use, as measur...

BrianJone, I checked out some of your previous posts/threads... it seems you are REALLY OVERTHINKING this starting a Roth IRA deal!! You are just getting started in this whole investing deal, right? The important thing for you now is to start and contribute. You're splitting hairs over which total ...

i think you pretty much nailed your 70/30 desired allocation and have the proposed funds placed optimally in the most tax-efficient accounts Bond 29.1% International Stock 21.4% US Stock 49.6% was that the balance between domestic/international stocks you had in mind? not sure i added anything here,...

Hi, Olerong. Nice job saving up and staying out of debt. 1. I'm not sure what I should do with the $125K; currently getting 0.85% interest. I have no immediate plans to touch most of that money and would like some advice on where to put it to get a higher rate of return, but still relatively little ...

i budget in about 10 broad categories that i monitor in mint, but i subcategorize individual transactions so that i can see within an individual category what is driving that area's expense. I started tracking everything about 7 years ago with quicken and then moved to mint.com...i used the budget i...

Hi, Jetpack, Yes, I would personally contribute up to the maximum match and then temporarily use anything extra to try to get yourself out of the car and/or get yourself in a position to refinance since you anticipate keeping the house a long time. ...if you can get just one of those two things done...

Hi, congratulations on getting started on taking control of your finances. for her 403b, most of the options are too expensive...but she does have a few good funds available. I agree with Default User BR that the 4 vanguard funds named could be used to get to her desired asset allocation. I have a d...

this will show up on form 8606 when you file taxes. you want to file this form every single year now to keep track of your "basis", the amount of aftertax IRA you are backdooring into a roth. If you have enough cash to make both your 2012 and 2013 contributions now, it will be easier to ma...

you're off to a great start. I have to ask, what is your plan for the mortgage? after maxing out the tax advantaged accounts, as a personal preference I'd focus on paying off the mortgage before you turn 40 instead of adding so much to the taxable account. If you haven't already read it, I would re...

DCP after tax (which allows in service rollover/conversions to Roth IRA) Hi, Kidshrink, are you a university of california employee? If so, I have a question for you. I work for UC and am trying to find the documentation that says I can do in service rollover of DCP aftertax to Roth IRA with no pen...

i definitely like the advice you are getting about selling the sharebuilder things with losses and long-term gains. If I were in your shoes, I would use all of those proceeds and some of your cash to pay down or pay off the mortgage. Others might disagree with getting rid of the mortgage, but you sh...

I think that is right. I think you want to acknowledge the 2012 after tax contribution on form 8606 in the filing due this year so that it is recorded as part of the basis when you show the rollover in the filing due next year.

Hi, I have a question about making use of tax advantaged accounts and the best order to make contributions/conversions. As background, I am a university of california employee and max out my 403b and 457b and have just started doing the backdoor Roth in the past 2 years. I have no debt and have a ye...

For more step by step investment advice I'd really trust this website more than any particular book I've read. http://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Getting_Started In general, I'd say that Liar's Poker and The Big Short by Michael Lewis and Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre are all fantas...

It could benefit my tax situation if I have some (paper) passive real estate losses to balance the passive farm income, as I understand it. I am not an expert, but it's hard for me to imagine a scenario where the benefits to your tax bill could outweigh the actual passive losses you would seek out....

I would personally not feel comfortable with the spending plan because you use up most of your cash in year 1, and if your plans to fund year 2 or 3 don't work out for some reason, you don't really have the backup of student loans to keep you on track (not that i like the idea of loans anyway!). Giv...

...but did do the back door ROTH. Thanks for your help. I have read that it is common this year to have trouble with turbo tax calculating backdoor roth correctly until you manually adjust form 8606. This happened to me, and was a cinch to fix once I read in the forum how to correct the problem, bu...

an energy-efficient house is a good boglehead house, in my opinion! i think you're on the right track to prioritize what parts of green building can fit within your budget, and folks here have made great comments about starting with insulation and passive solar design. -you said you have eliminated ...

I would pay off the mortgage entirely and save/invest as much as you can over the next few years. If you decide to make investments outside the boglehead portfolio--and it is not clear to me that you should take on hassles that divert your time away from your practice and your family--at least be su...

Hi, I am hoping to get your opinions and hear your strategies on how you balance saving/investing for retirement vs mid- to long-term saving/investing. As background, I'm 33 and have my home and car paid off, have no debt, and live very frugally. I keep a 1 year emergency fund and don't regret payin...